Sons of Plunder
by Lamia of the Dark
Summary: Oneshot. The day Kyoko meets Vie Ghoul, she already has the means of their destruction in her possession. Will Sho accept her offer of help and destroy Vie Ghoul before they can destroy him? NOT a romantic ShoxKyoko pairing.


**DISLCAIMER: Skip Beat belongs to Yoshiki Nakamura, the song "Sons of Plunder" and all its lyrics belong to Disturbed, and all your base are belong to us.**

-- Sons of Plunder --

_You say you've found yourself a new sound  
The shit's loaded and it's ready to go  
A bit too much just like the old sound  
Already heard it for the hundreth time_

"I met a band called Vie Ghoul."

_One hundred more, all have the same sound  
Running around with all the sheep that you know  
"It's so sublime, they're breaking new ground"  
"They're sure to have another hit this time"_

"So what?"

_Come on_

"Oh, so not getting number one is 'something trivial' to you?"

_Can't you just leave it alone?  
It doesn't have any soul  
Just find a thing of your own  
And stop pretending to know_

"Then I guess," Kyoko said, heading for the door, "that extending my sympathy and offering assistance are completely useless actions in this situation. And here I was, feeling sorry for you. Over _something trivial_."

When she was almost out the door, Sho called out, "Wait!"

Kyoko looked back over her shoulder at him.

"Offering assistance, how, exactly?" he asked - half-interested, half-suspicious.

_As the countless numbers hunger for worldwide renown  
All the pimping sons of plunder will roll up their sleeves  
All searching for the answers they don't even care to know_

Kyoko turned to face him, and he saw the calculating expression on her face.

"To beat Vie Ghoul at their own game, you have to do something that they can never imitate," she explained.

"Oh, right, something they could never imitate," Sho answered sarcastically. "And you're going to somehow magically pull the solution to that problem out of your... purse?"

He'd been about to say "ass", then seen that Kyoko was digging for something in her bag.

_I'm still surrounded by the "new sound"  
I've had enough and I'm ready to go  
A strangle-hold throughout the world now  
The new obsession will fade in time_

"This," she said, handing him a single sheet of paper.

Sho looked down at it.

Basilica  
lyrics by Sakira Aihara

His head jerked up when he saw the name.

"Sakira Aihara?" he asked in surprise. He knew that Sakira Aihara was a popular manga artist - mostly shojo series and kids' stuff, but also a few hentai titles - who was infamous for refusing to allow live-action adaptations of her works unless they were done with a cast she hand-picked herself for the roles. He knew this because Pochi was a Sakira Aihara fan and kept complaining that Atelier Eclipsed Moon (the small yet successful multi-media studio that both published Sakira Aihara's manga and produced anime and live-action adaptations of them) never held open auditions.

_A thin reminder of the past now  
All convoluted hardly ready to go  
Their whines and moans will never last now  
I think you've given us our fill this time_

"You... how...?" he asked incoherently, overcome with shock that Kyoko was on board for a Sakira Aihara project.

"I was scouted for a role," Kyoko explained. She didn't mention that it was a dark, Mio-like role that she'd been hesitant to accept. Because, oddly enough: "Aihara-sensei asked for me after seeing the Curara commercial. It was only after that, that she also heard I was playing Mio in _Dark Moon_ and that I played the angel in your promo video for Prisoner. It turned out that a member of one of Atelier Eclipsed Moon's bands had a copy of your single, and Aihara-sensei watched the video. She's had all three of their bands try singing Basilica, but it's not really the right style for any of them. She might even cancel the project if she can't get the song to the way she wants it."

"Ah..." Sho suddenly put the pieces together. "You're only offering this to me because the song is for the project _you're_ acting in and you don't want it to get cancelled!"

"No," Kyoko said, narrowing her eyes. "Of course I don't want it to get cancelled, but that's not the reason. Aihara-sensei expressed an interest in having you sing Basilica, and maybe having you play a small role in _The Serpent God's Forest_ if you wanted it, but I sort of... kind of... told her I couldn't work with you and she backed down."

_Come on_

"So, now that things seem to be going badly for both of us, I decided that maybe we could overlook the whole childhood friends thing and try to work alongside each other as professionals," she concluded.

"... okay."

Kyoko wasn't really expecting Sho to give in that easily. Then again, he'd just been given an invaluable chance to sell his name in a way that most musicians - and even most _actors_ - couldn't claim.

_As the countless numbers hunger for worldwide renown  
All the pimping sons of plunder will roll up their sleeves  
All searching for the answers they don't even care to know_

A few days later, Sho went to the Atelier Eclipsed Moon studio to perform Basilica in front of a small audience, including Sakira Aihara herself - who would then decide whether his performance matched her vision for the song.

"I kneel down and pray  
That the dark god's love  
Will shine down on me  
I don't hope to find  
Light in the darkness  
For without light  
Shadows still exist  
In the pure blackness  
Of human hearts and souls

I kneel down and pray  
That the dark god's love  
Will shine down on me."

That was the cut that would be used in the movie. He hadn't seen the rest of the lyrics, but Aihara-sensei had promised that he could release the full-length version of the song as a single if he was approved as the signer for the project.

Needless to say, he got the green light.

Of course, once Sho found out that Ren Tsuruga was starring in _The Serpent God's Forest_, he flipped out. Until the lead singer of ONLY (the band doing the instrumentals for Basilica) gave him the basic outline of the promo video for the song. Sho got a demonic gleam in his eye as the younger boy explained... This was going to be fun. And evil. Especially once Ren's fans saw it.

_It's like a plague from below  
Killing all that I know  
One hundred voices the same  
Drench their sorrow in flame_

Vie Ghoul's new single was knocked off the charts by Basilica.

For months after the release of the single, Sho and Ren were both hounded during every magazine interview and television appearance to talk about the shocking promo video where they almost kissed. Their mouths had been only a fraction of an inch apart when Ren (as the Serpent God character) disappeared in a cloud of sparkles, replaced by a giant snake that bit Sho's character's neck and killed him.

Both stars smoothly evaded the questions by explaining that the song and video were both related to the as-yet-unreleased movie _The Serpent God's Forest_ and that the snake (which had actually been a CG effect) was also the Serpent God character and that in the video Ren's character had not actually disappeared but had changed forms, both granting and denying the wish of Sho's character (the wish voiced in the lyrics of the song) by killing him.

It was something Vie Ghoul could never even _try_ to imitate.

And yet the victory felt bittersweet.

-end-

**A/N: I thought Disturbed's "Sons of Plunder" fit Vie Ghoul really well, since they're just trying to get famous from copycatting Sho.**

**A/N: The song "Basilica" was written by me, as was any plot/characters from "The Serpent God's Forest" that are mentioned in this fic. Basilica might sound kind of like "basilisk" but the word actually means a cathedral. Sakira Aihara and ONLY also belong to me. **

**Review are love.**


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